Running has always been a downfall of mine when it comes to CX racing. Despite competing in sports like basketball and rugby at a young age, as became more invested in cycling, the idea of doing any running didn’t appeal, “I’m a cyclist, I don’t run” I would say. As Ive got older and had the opportunity to race bigger, international events I’ve come to realise being able to run well and doing it fast is a massive part of being a strong CX rider, you can’t just dismiss it and hope your legs will move fast when you need to clamber up a muddy bank, carrying a bike with a few extra kg of mud (like I’ve always done!).
The last two years I’ve set goals to gradually get running more and in general improving my ability to run hard in races. Starting in the 2019/20 CX season by simply going out for a gentle 20 mins (3-4km) once a week, without fail. It doesn't seem impressive, but when you haven’t gone out for a run in years you can really feel it!! During CX training sessions we would incorporate running during efforts so I was training “sprint efforts” just not as consistently or targeted specifically. In that CX season I noticed the races that had more running I wasn’t as bothered as I knew I’d worked on it, and generally my confidence in my ability was a lot higher, even if I really hadn’t done much! Moving into the 2020/21 CX season, I had been running throughout summer, bringing up my distances to 5-6km a run. Still focusing on just once a week doing a gentle run. However, after returning from a very disappointing ride at European Championships (a course with a lot of on and off the bike areas), my coach and I took a step back to reassess my training; we changed a few aspects but the main being incorporating on-foot sprint sessions or hill sprints into my runs. Therefore building on my explosivity, it was the biggest change and probably the most effective; I was seeing results almost immediately. I finally was beginning to put running as one of my strengths in races! I started enjoying running more and more, the better I felt at it, pushing my distances higher until I was doing one 10km run a week. Eventually, as a small goal for myself, I signed up for a MTB off road Duathlon (5km run,14km ride, 5km run), as a result forcing myself to keep on top of my running fitness and give it purpose. I competed in the duathlon two weeks ago and finished 2nd senior woman :))) I never expected to do well, I just wanted to enjoy and low pressure race and see how I could perform. I paced myself on the first run coming into transition midfield, gunned it on the ride making my way into the top 15 and then just hung on in the second run...one foot in front of the other. Take a look at my short video edit for an insight into the days events below :) Three years ago the idea of going on a run and actually enjoying it seemed impossible but here we are now, it really is crazy what you can do if you set your mind to it! I’ve still got a long way to go with my running but now it seems much more possible. Thanks for reading Amy :) x Thank you Pedal Potential for the continued support, I wouldn’t be able to compete in all these events the past few weeks without it.
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December 2022
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